Great Expectations is a 1934 romantic drama film directed by Stuart Walker. Filmed with mostly American actors, it was the first sound version of the novel and was produced in Hollywood by Universal Studios. It stars Phillips Holmes as Pip, Jane Wyatt as Estella and Florence Reed as Miss Havisham. The film is an adaptation of the 1861 Charles Dickens novel of the same name.
This film differs somewhat from the novel in making Miss Havisham more eccentric than insane. Unlike the novel, she does not wear her bridal veil constantly, does not seem to have really engineered all of Pip's misfortunes with Estella, and dies offscreen of natural causes rather than in a fire.
Contents
Cast
Henry Hull as Abel Magwitch
Phillips Holmes as Pip
Jane Wyatt as Estella
Florence Reed as Miss Havisham
Alan Hale as Joe Gargery
Rafaela Ottiano as Mrs. Joe Gargery
George Barraud as Compeyson
Francis L. Sullivan as Mr. Jaggers
Douglas Wood as Wopsle
Forrester Harvey as Uncle Pumblechook
George P. Breakston as Pip, as a Child
Harry Cording as Orlick
Eily Malyon as Sarah Pocket (billed as Eily Malyan)
Anne Howard as Estella, as a Child
Walter Armitage as Herbert Pocket
Walter Brennan as Prisoner on Ship (uncredited)
Critical response
Critics consider this 1934 version far inferior to the classic 1946 version, made in England and directed by David Lean. A notable link between the two movies is that Francis L. Sullivan played the role of Jaggers in both.
Helen Brown Norden of Vanity Fair wrote: "An exciting version of the Dickens novel, pungent with the original flavour and spirit, well-acted by Henry Hull, George Breakston and Florence Reed, and beautifully directed by Stuart Walker. Grand entertainment."
Film critic Ella H. McCormick of the Detroit Free Press wrote: "Those Dickens lovers who go to see this one of his famed novels picturized will not have their great expectations cold-showered, despite the fact the muddy, foggy Thames waters play an important part of the story."